Budget smartphone maker to shake up European market

By Edd Gent

Published Thursday, September 26, 2013

A budget smartphone maker will bring its products to Europe to capitalise on a market it believes is not offering value for money.

UMi phones are widely sold in Asia but have now partnered up with distributors in Europe to introduce its phones and accessories to the European market with the firm planning to market them as a rival to the current android market.

Its products are available for sale on the UMi Europe website from today and from 20 October its phones will be available at select retailers in the UK and Ireland along with other European countries.

An UMi spokesman said: "Currently, we feel that there is a big discrepancy between the European and the Asian smartphone market.

"The market in Europe is dominated by a handful of large brands offering phones that are honestly not a very good value for money deal, while in Asia there is very strong competition between a whole range of large and small brands.

"UMi now wants to bridge that gap by offering low cost smartphones that don't compensate on specifications and quality."

Models for sale initially are the S1, an entry level 5ins HD quad core smartphone which is seen as a competitor to the likes of the HTC One X and is priced at £189 and the X2, a high end smartphone with a 5ins HD touchscreen, 1.5Ghz quad core processor and 13 megapixel camera, which on sale at £209 will rival the Sony Xperia Z, the company said.

Next month UMi will also launch the UMi CROSS, a 6ins smartphone/tablet hybrid, which it said will offer a less expensive and more powerful alternative to the recently released Samsung Galaxy Mega.